Guitarist Kim A. Thayil was born in Seattle, Washington, on September
4, 1960, to East Indian parents. He lived there until age 5, when he
moved to Park Forest, Illinois, about 40 miles southwest of
Chicago. He spent the majority of his childhood there, though he did
live in India for a while. Thayil grew up listening to the MC5, the
Dolls, the Stooges, and the Velvet Underground, but it all began with
Kiss. "Kiss Alive was the second album I ever bought, and the first
record that made me realize things could be a lot louder and more
violent than the Beatles. It emphasized volume and guitar over
harmony, melody and lyrics; all the stuff I never listened to anyway,"
he told Mudhoney's Mark Arm. Thayil's first band, Zippy and His Vast
Army of Pinheads, did both original songs (written by Thayil and
inspired by his punk music tastes) and cover tunes (mostly the Sex
Pistols and the Ramones).

He graduated, along with Hiro Yamamoto and Bruce Pavitt, from the
alternative learning program at Rich East High School in 1981. He and
Yamamoto decided to move to Olympia, Washington, to study at Evergreen
State College, but they were unable to find jobs, and decided to move
to Seattle. There Thayil enrolled in the University of Washington,
where he subsequently earned a degree in philosophy, and earned money
as a DJ for KCMU.

Thayil wound up in the Shemps, a band founded by his roommate Matt
Dentino, replacing, oddly enough, Yamamoto as bassist after Chris
Cornell joined the band. In 1984, after the demise of the Shemps,
Thayil -- sans beard -- was invited to join Yamamoto and his new
roommate Cornell in a band. They named themselves Soundgarden.

Since then, Thayil has lent his talents to other projects: he plays
guitar for Pigeonhed; he
appears on the Presidents' of the United States of America self-titled
album; and he teamed up with big names like Johnny Cash and Krist
Novoselic to record "Time of the Preacher" for the Twisted
Willie non-tribute to Willie Nelson. In addition, he is involved
in a project called Dark Load,
with Seattle personality Jeff Gilbert.

Kim Thayil speaks...

on Soundgarden's stance:
"We're sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll without the sex and drugs."

on "One Minute of Silence":
"We thought it was so good, we could add a little something to
it. It's the heavy metal version."

on guitar solos:
"Most are annoying, self-indulgent," he said. "To me, a great guitar
solo is Neil Young's on 'Cinammon Girl,' where he plays basically one
note."

on his reason for doing what he does:
"I play guitar because I like to make loud noises. And the guitar is
the coolest way to make a loud noise."

on the band's name:
"It's a name that conjures up powerful visual images, although at one
point we thought it might be too soft! But there was something about
the name that we liked. One of our hopes is that people come to see us
thinking they're gonna get something pretty, and then get their heads
blown off and walk away feeling like they got more than they
expected!"

on categorization and selling out:
"Obviously we're not gonna come out with all the metal cliches that
have been put on the radio for the past eight years. It we're going to
patronize the audience that likes that stuff, we might as well be
another Bon Jovi or Cinderella. If we are attracting different
audiences, that's fine, because we did it by being what we are. If we
were naturally a country band, I hope the country people would come
out and listen to us."

on the benefits of stardom:
"I do get free pizza sometimes. We did this not for the usual rewards
-- girls on our shoulders. We just like writing songs and
playing. That's sincerely the goshawful truth."

on being politically correct:
"I'm probably in most cases actively anti-political correctness
because the ideals are not thought out very well."

on concert performances:
"Sometimes I can hear the audience more than I can hear Chris who's
standing right next to me. We also get to see how each different city
chants Soundgarden -- the fateful three-syllable band. In Florida,
they just go, 'Garden, Garden.' In Germany, they stress each syllable
with equal ferocity. In Britain, they just go 'Mud-hon-ey.'"